March 29 (Bloomberg) -- International Business Machines
Corp. and Iron Mountain Inc. lost track of storage devices with
data from the California Department of Child Support Services
involving more than 800,000 people, the state said.

The information included names, addresses, Social Security
numbers, drivers’ license numbers, heath-insurance providers and
other data, California said today in a statement. The state said
it learned of the missing storage devices on March 12.

The loss or theft of computers and storage devices is a
common way data breaches happen. Since 2005, there have been 837
breaches affecting almost 169 million records involving lost,
discarded or stolen laptops, smartphones and various portable
data-storage devices, according to a database of publicly
disclosed breaches maintained by Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

Four backup tapes were discovered missing after being
transported from an IBM facility in Colorado to California
following a routine disaster-recovery exercise, according to
Christine Lally, assistant secretary for legislation and
communications with the California Technology Agency. The tapes
are believed to have fallen out of an improperly secured
shipping container while in transit, she said in an interview.

“Because the devices are in a specialized format, we have
no reason to believe, at this time, that the data have been
accessed or utilized in any way,” Kathleen Hrepich, interim
director of California’s Department of Child Support Services,
said in the statement. “Additionally, this incident will have
no impact on the processing of child support cases.”

Jeff Tieszen, a spokesman for Armonk, New York-based IBM,
didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Christian
Potts, a spokesman for Boston-based Iron Mountain, did not
immediately return an after-hours call and e-mail.

California has set up a website with more information about
the breach and recommendations for setting up fraud alerts and
other protective measures.